<p>What was your high school schedule? APs and Honors?</p>
<p>csbjs - son got rejected last year and had higher scores and GPA, and good ECs. NMF, 8 APs with 4s and 5s and all other classes were honors. Cornell CAS is REALLY tough. Faculty members read the apps and they look for strong intellectual passion/interest in the essays. His friend was a double legacy with similar profile and he ALSO was flat-out rejected! Parents say they have written their last check to the Cornell alumni fund! You are not alone. Hang in there...I'm sure you have other good choices.</p>
<p>92 isn't bad...but in a really competative college at an ivy league school...
Admissions are hard to predict so nothing is ever gauranteed at the top schools.</p>
<p>Have fun in Israel. I'm sure it'll be a great experience. Then u can transfer after ur year off of school ready to kick arse. gl</p>
<p>edit: ps like a minute after I posted this I read a kid posting his results who got into Harvard but was flat out rejected from Cornell "with some legacy". Goes to show Cornell isn't easy to get into.</p>
<p>"i was rejected the other day from penn and cornell Arts & Sciences. Penn i understand. but cornell i cant figure out."</p>
<p>What? Hello~ Cornell's Arts and Sciences is harder to get in than Penn's. Do research. Cornell's admission rate is 20.5% and CAS's is <14%; Penn's, on the other hand, is 17.7% overall. Cornell may look like easy meat because of their non-traditional colleges. Wrong.</p>
<p>yea i dont want to be a complete jerk but i dont know why this is THAT surprising. i mean i think you have great stats...but if you compare it to what alot of the other candidates have i dont think they're that impressive, probably even a little below average. looking at the ec's they're pretty good as well but same thing as grades, you're being compared to some really involved people. </p>
<p>ps my favorite is how you "understand" about penn and not about cornell. though probably upenns a little better but come on what did you expect, cornell as a safety?</p>
<p>pps. that being said, i think if you get good grades next year you prob shouldnt have too much trouble transfering. good luck</p>
<p>hinvestorp, it's the old misconception about Cornell that it is the easiest Ivy League school to get into. Any Ivy is tough to get into, even Cornell. For some things, it's easier to get into than for others.</p>
<p>college admissions is always like that... it's not a sure thing and stats are not the only determining factors!</p>
<p>thx guys....
i seem to have mislead some of you guys....
when i said that i was surprised more about cornell than i was about penn, its not because i think cornell is the easiest to get into...
this year, Arts & Sciences was below 15%, lower than penn, brown, and dartmouth...
its just that, having proven to them that i can not only succeed, but also excel in their particular university, that they still said they flat out dont want me...
sorry for being misleading...</p>
<p>to be fair, Cornell CAS is easily comparable to Dartmouth/Brown/Penn so i don't see that as a surprise.</p>
<p>I understand how you are baffled and disappointed that you were not admitted to Cornell even after attending their summer college.</p>
<p>I'm sure Cornell looks favorably upon students who attended their summer college during the admissions process, but since Cornell received so many applications this year, the adcom probably had to make some tough decisions. One cannot just expect to get accepted for certain reasons. The adcom is looking for students who are strong in all areas. Your stats are good, but maybe your essays were a little weak. </p>
<p>I know that essays can kill one's chances because I "half-a$$ed" by Northwestern essay and was rejected. I carefully crafted my Cornell and Penn essays and was accepted. (Arts and Sciences for Penn and ILR for Cornell)</p>
<p>Then again, the admissions process has been known to be very random and surprising.</p>
<p>my teachers and i thought the essays were some of the strongest parts of my application..</p>
<p>csbjs--I'm so sorry to hear about your denial of admission to Cornell and also how that decision has left you confused. I would agree that going there for their summer program would seem, at least to outsiders, to give you an edge, or at least a "hook," as they say. I'm sure you aren't the only person who is confused over his/her admissions decision. I don't know why someone like you did not get in but someone else, possibly with similar qualifications, did. I think there is some kind of "X Factor" in this admissions process, something unknown (and possibly unknowable) outside the admissions committee room that is just totally unpredictable for those of us outside looking in. </p>
<p>Did you try calling Admissions to ask if they would explain your decision? I have no idea whether they'd tell you, but I'm not sure what you'd have to lose. You could just pose the question anonymously, letting them know you're not challenging it, just wanting to be more informed.</p>
<p>I'm sorry to hear that you weren't admitted to Cornell since you wanted to go there so much, but nothing is guaranteed college admissions. There is no one out there who is ever a sure thing for one school or another. I know of at least two local high school students with statistics higher than the 25/75 numbers for Cornell who were rejected from Cornell this year. </p>
<p>Fortunately, you seem to have found a very interesting experience for you to embark upon next year. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>thanks for your insights, yall</p>
<p>I got into CAS with a 2020!</p>
<p>This is why I'm going for early decision next year. I hope everything works out for you csbjs, and sorry for hijacking the thread, but folks, wish me luck.</p>
<p>people on college confidential need some perspective. i am so bothered by how some of you shudder at the thought of a 92 average -- to give you guys an idea, i go to a very competitive private high school in a cosmopolitan city and a whole bunch of my classmates with A-, B+, and even B averages are shipping off to ivy league schools this coming fall. there is one boy with a few C- marks scattered across his transcript who is going to penn (some big donations played into that one). </p>
<p>i know this may seem foreign to some of you, but my school is very competitive for 9th grade admissions in the first place, and the weaker students are weeded out and referred to lesser schools in the area before we even reach the college admission process. about 30% of the class matriculates to ivy league schools, but only 10% of the class has an A- or better average. think about that. </p>
<p>also, csbjs, it seems that you are in a very competitive high school as well. have you thought about how many of your other classmates were already accepted early decision to cornell and penn? how many of them are legacy or have some other connection? i'm sorry about your confusion, i am currently finding myself in a similar situation.</p>
<p>sorry this was so blunt, but it is the sick, sad truth.</p>
<p>it really doesn't matter where one attends high school. if you go to a school that rarely sends kids to ivies, then it is important for you to take full advantage of whatever opportunities offered and excel at them. but if you go to a school that on average sends about 50% of their students to ivies and the likes, then its important to find a unique way to distinguish yourself amongst the pool of students. these "connections" are really starting to matter less nowadays. its not so much about where you went to school, but the rigor of your course load. if you went to one of those upper east side schools in nyc (hunter included), adcoms will know that schools like those tend to be more difficult. thats why its important to do very well in a no-name school so you prove that you are too, capable of doing the work. i think that most ppl on CC know this, however.</p>
<p>biggyboy, i am aware of the fact that one should challenge him/herself to the greatest extent that their school entertains. all i was suggesting is that if you go to a "feeder school" you must take your own situation into consideration. if your classmates have alumni parents sending big checks, if 7 other kids were already accepted early decision, if dozens of other kids in your class have gone on fancy trips to do "community service" abroad or have paid their way into a summer program to take classes at an ivy league school, or if any nip-picky detail is missing from your application, you can't seem too shocked that your game is over and that you were not accepted into these schools. </p>
<p>every year, there are a bunch of very smart, very qualified kids at these "feeder schools" that are overlooked because their classmates have a lot of money at their disposal and a lot of pull at some of these schools. it is rough and unfair, but whether you like it or not, whether you think "connections" are of importance or not, it is real.</p>
<p>but you're not talking about connections. you're talking about money. obviously, money helps with everything. if you wanted too, anyone can get some "community service" done or attend a summer program at some ivy. you don't need connections for that.</p>